@OP - another warning: every now and then a hostile will head off away from the CZ. It will seem like a great opportunity to follow him and pick him off. But when he crosses the boundary of the CZ (and there is nothing to tell you when this has happened) he will cease to be a legitimate target and you will be up on a murder rap if you kill him.

Choose "High Intensity", rather than "Low Intensity" Combat Zones. Counterintuitively, the low intensity ones are harder because there aren't as many allied ships around to take heat off you, and you'll usually be the biggest threat as seen by the AI. You can easily end up with almost every enemy ship focusing on you.

I do not buy the high intensity is "easier" advise. Well not all the time. I have certainly subscribed to this in the past. I do think combat rank of the player plays its part. It also depends on whether you are forced to a particular side by BGS needa. If not, think the advise coupled with the advise to fly to 5km and then choose sides is based around letting one side get the upper hand, makes high intensity a better choice.

Anyway only advise, what ever intensiyu is to let it form for a while - 5km and then choose, if you do not fancy the odds off to another CZ see if RNG is kinder there. Always have a high wake ready in route planner for a quck escape.

I'd always assumed the difference between low and high was more to do with the numbers of ships rather than difficulty, low being more suited to less powerful PCs. I concur that high CZs can be easier, even with more and stronger ships because there is less chance of being swarmed.

It`s no longer viable without engineering, so you might better look for a buddy whilde learning the ropes. and that is mostly about the super lemming AI going all out for players and ignoring any other threat.

I agree that HICZs are easier, mostly due to there being fewer railguns plinking away at you.

The other thing to note is that the AI places quite a high priority to player ships, so you need to ensure that your ship can take quite a few hits. Even if you are able to stay perfectly on an opponent's six, it matters little when there's 2-3 enemies engaging on you most of the time, some of which will be using lasers and railguns with near 100% accuracy. Because of this, engineering the shield generator and shield boosters is quite a high priority for anyone venturing into CZs. As a corollary to all this, you need to know when to bug out into supercruise to let your shields regen a bit.

Well, as a mid-ranked combat pilot in a Viper, although engineered, I figured I'd be a small fish in either CZ. My experience in the high-intensity CZ was that it was a stroll in the park, with time to stop and smell the flowers (collect materials). I was practically ignored except for the ship I was attacking. I imagine with a high combat ranking in a more deadly ship it will be a little different. But for now it was pretty fun, and a good way to get high grade mats. It also looks like a wing of small fighters would be great fun against the big ships. Anyway, it looks like things will be changing, probably for the better, with the new update.

@OP - another warning: every now and then a hostile will head off away from the CZ. It will seem like a great opportunity to follow him and pick him off. But when he crosses the boundary of the CZ (and there is nothing to tell you when this has happened) he will cease to be a legitimate target and you will be up on a murder rap if you kill him.

you should get a warning in text in the middle of the screen that informs you that your are leaving the combat zone